Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Update: Third "Door" Found in Great Pyramid
National Geographic ^ | 9/23/2002 | National Geographic

Posted on 09/25/2002 10:28:43 PM PDT by SteveH

Update: Third "Door" Found in Great Pyramid

National Geographic News

September 23, 2002

View a movie of the newest pyramid shaft discovery >>

Scientists exploring the Great Pyramid in Egypt sent a robot into the northern shaft in the past few days, discovering another blocking stone. The "door" appears to be identical to the one in the southern shaft that was already known. The doors are equidistant (65 meters/208 feet) from the queen's chamber. It is the third such block discovered within the shafts of the pyramid.

The announcement of the discovery was made Monday by Farouk Hosni, Egypt's minister of culture, and Zahi Hawass, secretary general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities and a National Geographic explorer-in-residence.

A specially developed combination of robotics, camera, and lighting technology developed by iRobot of Boston, yielded the new information. Until this discovery, no one knew that the northern shaft extended to the north as far as the southern shaft goes to the south.

Prior explorations of the northern shaft have failed because, unlike the southern shaft, the northern shaft has a number of bends and sharp corners. Hawass suggested that the layout of the northern shaft may have been designed to avoid intersection with the pyramid's grand gallery.

The top image shows a new door in the Great Pyramid in Egypt, discovered just last week. The lower image shows the previously-discovered door.

Photograph copyright National Geographic Television and Film

Click here to download RealPlayer.

More News Adventure & Exploration

Archaeology & Paleontology

Animals & Nature

Science & Technology

People & Culture

Diary of the Planet

The Environment

Travel

National Geographic Today

Special Series Digital Lifestyles: feature by Sony

EarthPulse

National Geographic Out There

Volvo Ocean Race

Mount Everest Expedition

"This find in the northern shaft, coupled with last week's discovery of a second 'door' behind the blocking stone in the southern shaft, represents the first major new information about the Great Pyramid in more than a century. We will now carefully study the data and plan out further investigation of the two shafts in order to accurately map and interpret the find," Hawass said.

The newly discovered northern shaft door appears to be very similar to the one in the southern shaft, including the presence of a pair of copper "pins" or "handles." The southern shaft "door" was discovered in a 1993 investigation conducted under the auspices of the German Archaeological Institute.

On September 17, 2002, a National Geographic robot, specially designed to traverse the southern shaft to the blocking stone, inserted a miniature fiber-optic camera into a three-quarters-of-an-inch hole to reveal the rough-hewn blocking stone lying seven inches beyond the original southern shaft door. That earlier portion of the expedition was broadcast live in an international television event carried on National Geographic Channel and on Fox in the U.S.

"The mystery of the Great Pyramid becomes all the more compelling with each new discovery coming from the queen's chamber and the Supreme Council of Antiquities/National Geographic expedition," Terry Garcia, executive vice president of mission programs at the National Geographic Society said. "This continuation of our century-long involvement in archaeological breakthroughs in Egypt is an exciting extension of the National Geographic mission."

Portions of the northern shaft have been previously explored. In 1872 Waynman Dixon found a small bronze hook and granite ball. In the 1920s a pyramid enthusiast, Morton Edgar, attempted to learn more about the queen's chamber shafts by using flexible metal rods. In the southern shaft he was stopped, presumably by the blocking door. In the northern shaft, which appears to bend and curve around the grand gallery, Edgar's flexible rods broke and remain there to this day. The SCA/NG robot "rover" had to navigate around the metal rods to reach the end of the northern shaft.

In the course of the German Archaeological Institute's 1993 investigation, Rudolf Gantenbrink's robot traversed part of the shaft but only succeeded in covering 19 meters (63.3 feet).


TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: archaeology; economic; egypt; ggg; godsgravesglyphs; history; pyramid
Gantenbrink gets the shaft again :-)
1 posted on 09/25/2002 10:28:43 PM PDT by SteveH
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: SteveH
These coded stories about Lewinski have got to stop. Whether she got the "shaft" or not is irrelevant 'cause oral sex is not sex.
2 posted on 09/25/2002 10:46:02 PM PDT by Drango
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SteveH
Those guys were way too happy about finding another (proverbial) brick wall...

*sniff*sniff*..I smell more grant money...

3 posted on 09/25/2002 10:56:57 PM PDT by Michael Barnes
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: unix
And cable TV is salivating. Their advertisers love those hour-long tease shows hyping you thru dozens of ads to get to the "big climax."

Once hooked, the audience is locked in place as the "revelation" draws nearer and nearer.

Then--bingo--another Geraldo "Capone's safe" deal.

Maybe there's 3-4 more walls to go. $$$!

4 posted on 09/25/2002 11:17:58 PM PDT by henbane
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: SteveH
I'm trying to figure out why they can't use some variation of 3D seismic analysis (used in the oil industry to map underground structures in search of oil/gas deposits) in order to just map the internal layout of the Pyramid in one fell swoop.

3D seismic scans are the rock-and-earth equivalent of a medical ultrasound scan or CAT/MRI scan.

Like an ultrasound, they are performed by sending sound vibrations into the ground, then recording the complex echoes which are returned and doing heavy computer analysis on them to back-calculate the internal structures that must have reflected them.

For example, here is a scan of an underground faulted dome:


5 posted on 09/25/2002 11:27:06 PM PDT by Dan Day
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Drango
"These coded stories about Lewinski have got to stop. Whether she got the "shaft" or not is irrelevant 'cause oral sex is not sex."

Is oral sex "the third door"?
6 posted on 09/26/2002 1:22:36 AM PDT by APBaer
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: APBaer
Is oral sex "the third door"?

Maybe it was Clinton's "third way".

7 posted on 09/26/2002 1:25:59 AM PDT by #3Fan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: SteveH
Update: Third "Door" Found in Great Pyramid

here is the Third Door



and they discovered many amazing things!!! call Geraldo!!!


8 posted on 09/26/2002 1:36:25 AM PDT by Bobby777
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: *Gods, Graves, Glyphs; SteveH
Just adding this to the GGG homepage, not sending a general distribution.
Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on or off the "Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list --
Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.

9 posted on 07/20/2004 10:22:05 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Unlike some people, I have a profile. Okay, maybe it's a little large...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

i think this info is amazing keep doing all that you are


10 posted on 07/18/2005 9:03:52 PM PDT by zarica
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]


· join list or digest · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post a topic ·

 
Gods
Graves
Glyphs
Just updating the GGG info, not sending a general distribution.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.
GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach
 

· Google · Archaeologica · ArchaeoBlog · Archaeology · Biblical Archaeology Society ·
· Discover · Nat Geographic · Texas AM Anthro News · Yahoo Anthro & Archaeo ·
· The Archaeology Channel · Excerpt, or Link only? · cgk's list of ping lists ·


11 posted on 12/11/2008 1:03:36 AM PST by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/_______Profile finally updated Saturday, December 6, 2008 !!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson